F1 in 2000s was better than boring Prost/Senna era

Fernando Alonso recently stated that the historic F1 era of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna during the 1980s and early 1990s was very boring as per today’s standards, even though for many F1 fans, this era was considered to be Formula One’s golden years. Fernando Alonso, Spanish Formula One racing driver of recent time did not mince his words when he stated, “F1 in 2000s was better than boring Prost/Senna era”.  However, Alonso feels that people remember that era too favourably and hopes to bring back those glory days with his current team McLaren-Honda.

Since the start of the V6 turbo era in 2014, F1 has come under fire as most modern cars, mainly dominated by Mercedes, are known to require heavy fuel saving and tyre management in races. Alonso is one of the most prominent drivers of modern cars today. The state of the current F1 has no doubt drawn comparisons to previous decade racing when Senna and Prost were at their peak.

Speaking about the present era of 2000, even when the television figures and spectators have dropped, double World Champion Alonso said that Formula One was very boring at the time of Senna and Prost. There was every chance of spectators sleeping off during the race as these F1 races of ’85, ’88 or ’92, had only two McLarens, the fourth guy was lapped and there was a time gap of 25 seconds between each car. Also because of poor reliability, there were only 10 cars DNF. The number of television figures and spectators were also not very high.

However, Alonso is of opinion that in 2017, with changing rules and the entry of better, faster and aggressive-looking cars, the glory of the 2000s in F1 racing will soon be restored. This was the decade in which he won his two world championships. He thinks that F1 was at its peak during this decade and not the years of Senna-Prost or any other era. In the 2000s, many well-known manufacturers came into Formula One – BMW, Toyota, and there were many participants as well. Television figures and the spectators were at the maximum at that time. New countries entered F1. Alonso mentioned that they raced in countries like Korea, India, Singapore and Spain. The costs were high, there was advanced technology, there were more spectators and the sport really shone in 2000.

He also mentioned that in the new F1 season of 2017, as new  technical regulations will be implemented aiming at increasing lap times by up to five seconds per lap, the game will be all the more interesting and exciting. He also believes that the new cars, with wider tyres and wings and more downforce, will once again be more exciting to drive.